Facilitator's Guide for What's Your Evidence?: Engaging K-5 Children in Constructing Explanations in Science

The Book Study Facilitator’s Guide to accompany What’s Your Evidence? Engaging K-5 Students in Constructing Explanations in Science by Carla Zembal-Saul, Katherine L. McNeill and Kimber Hershberger, provides professional development and teacher leaders tips and ideas for using this book when conducting a Book Study group or professional development series.

 

Generating scientific evidence, explaining natural phenomena, and participating in science talk and science writing are key skills identified in current science reform documents and standards. Critical as they are, these are challenging scientific practices for students to engage in and for teachers to plan for and implement in class. Engaging in Book Study can help teachers better support their students in these key aspects of science learning. This guide provides resources to help professional development and teacher leaders encourage and support teachers as they discuss the ideas in the book, try the scientific explanation framework (i.e., claim, evidence, reasoning, and rebuttal) with their students, and use their own student work and video to spur discussion and reflection to inform practice.

 

Why science coaches and trainers will love the Book Study Facilitator’s Guide:

 

• The facilitator’s guide consists of nine sessions supporting each chapter of the book. Due to the importance of the scientific explanation framework and assessment two sessions were devoted to each of these chapters.
• Each session is intended to create a constructivist-oriented learning experience.
• The sessions are structured to build participants understandings of the key ideas through conducting investigations, analyzing video, examining student work, designing learning tasks, and designing assessment tasks with their colleagues.
• Participants are then encouraged to read the suggested book chapter following the session to develop a more in-depth understanding of how to apply the ideas to their own classroom.
• Each session clearly outlines for facilitators the Learning Objectives, Materials, a complete Session Plan, and Homework.